In between morning work tasks, I went through my weekly ritual of looking at used camper/trailer prices in my area on Facebook Marketplace. While I've committed to giving this one at least six months before deciding whether to stick with it or upgrade, I like to keep an eye on what's out there.
Having never watched this market before, I would have expected the prices of used campers/RVs to be down in the middle of winter, with a market flooded from people who use them for summer recreational travel, etc. deciding to get rid of ones they didn't use as much as expected last summer and figure they won't do so next summer either.
But the prices I'm seeing are actually up from last fall, except for older listings that still haven't sold (most of those were on campers that were too much in the "fixer upper" category even for me, and that I expect may not sell for any price -- a few are even listed as "free if you'll just haul the damn thing away already").
Three hypotheses:
- In north central Florida (and probably some other locales), a lot of these campers have clearly been serving as homes, and nobody likes to move in the winter. We may not have blizzards and icy roads in this neck of the woods, but we also tend to put on coats and gloves and stomp our feet trying to stay warm when the temperature falls below 65 (I laughed at that when I moved here, but now I've gone native). So people who didn't get moved out of a camper by December or so are probably just riding things out until spring.
- Same thing, even if they're ready to sell. To sell the camper, you have to clean it out and clean it up a little, and actually leave your heated house to show it to prospective buyers. They'd rather do that when it's 75 degrees than when it's 45 degrees.
- The "didn't use it much last year" sellers may not decide to sell until recreational travel season starts looking like a thing again and they start thinking "do I really want to put new tires on it, give the roof a new coat of sealant, etc., when I'll probably use it one weekend if at all? Screw it, I'll put it on marketplace, get it out of my driveway, and either buy a tent or stay in a motel if we go somewhere."
Or maybe it's something else.
If I do upgrade, the first exclusionary factor will be "not another pop-up." The whole selling point of this kind of camper is that it's nice and compact for pulling around; the sacrifice involved is that once you expand it, you're surrounded by canvas and vinyl that's drafty and not well-insulated. Which is fine when it's 75 degrees out, but not as fine when it's 45 or 95 degrees out. The pop-out area is just bed space (necessary for travel, not as useful when you're using it as an office); the real floor space, even if you don't have a stove/sink/etc., is maybe 50 square feet.*
* Don't get me wrong -- I actually consider this little pop-up fairly roomy, since what I'm doing in it is almost entirely just sitting at a desk. But with a larger hard-sided camper, I could have a bigger desk, use a rolling chair, line the walls with bookshelves, etc. and still have plenty of room to play my guitar or host a poker game.
